On the concept of a Sociarchy, and how it opresses Autistics

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I know I don't post much (Grad school takes precedent over internet right now,) but I've slowly learnt some things about life as time went on. This is just stuff I've thought about as time went on. Contribute if you want.

Society wants to "Cure" aspies and auties, so that they become productive members of society. What also seems to be an interesting pattern is how anyone that doesn't fit the "mainstream" in any way becomes oppressed by the majority. For example, fat people are often made fun of on TV, nerds are but a major stereotype, and don't get me started on Grey's Anatomy and that sorry representation of an Aspie Virginia Dixon.

Autistics right now are in a boat similar to that of the Feminists of yesteryear: Oppressed by a patriarchy that denied them equality. In our case, however, we are oppressed not by a society of males, but by a society based on socializing and social engineering, and whom is best at it. I propose the term "Sociarchy" be used when describing this phenomenon. If someone has a better term, we can debate that as well.

Sociarchy, then, is defined as rule by individuals who are adept at socializing, and oppress people who do not socialize as well. Those who would defy the mainstream are seen as "deviant" and "idiotic" and in our case "ret*d." Look at Dan from Action of Children. By responding angrily to his "bullies," he rejected the sociarchy that says he should take it and use it as further encouragement to be "reprogrammed" into the mainstream and conform to Sociarchic principles. An idea further reinforced by Dan's entrance into Action for Children's care, where they "reeducate" him into someone that the sociarchy would find more appealing.

The sociarchy has done everything to limit the individualism of Aspie and Autie alike, and oppresses us by not giving us the protections it gives those higher up on the social level. I feel that we should reject the Sociarchy and encourage others to do the same.

I'm not on anything. I genuinely believe this. I'm sick of hearing about Autistics going insane, killing themselves and/or others, feeling insulted, broken, etc because of what this society puts us through. I say we fight back in whatever way we can. Not literal fighting, obviously, but we do need to start taking action. Dan and Action for Children is only the beginning.

Oppression is a loaded term. Autistics, by default, are outside of social norms and pursue being outside of the norm most of the time. This does not prevent us from partaking in the social norms, it just so happens that we are more isolated. It just makes it more difficult for us to integrate ourselves back into those norms when we choose to participate once again.

Sociarchy? That's just another name for Society. Aspies and auties are as oppressed as they want to be IMO. WHat about all this Aspie rhetoric about disowning society and getting away from people? Aspies don't want to join in society. They'd much rather disown it.

Guardeleon, you might look at the thread "Picking Up Social Situations Intuitively"...especially the last 4 pages. At this point it's a 15 page thread.

We were discussing the pros and cons of joining the social pecking order. A good case can be made for both positions.

Opressed autistics? Are you working for the Obama stimulus team?

I think that oppression is a little too strong. I've worked in care for 5 years during my 20s (that's when I realised that I had more in common with the patients than the staff!), and I've seen some very well meaning people do the wrong thing. I once had an arguement with one of my superiors who made a blanket statement that "autistic people cannot process verbal commands". Of course, she was just back from a TEACCH conference!

NTs don't want to oppress us, they think that we're already oppressed by our autism, so they try to teach us to be like them in order to help us. They see us as being locked in a cage, and they think by teaching us to behave the same as them that we'll be freed. I think that's possibly the reason why so many of the autistic patients we had were so frustrated and angry. Maybe we should be teaching them how to be better auties.

How I've managed is that I meet society on my terms. I have to deal with my 2 co-workers every day (and I know I'm very lucky to only have 2 co-workers!). As far as they're concerned, they have to understand that some of my ways are strange, that some days I'll be hyper and some days I'll be quiet, but I can't help it because I'm autistic. But it's not a one way street. I have to understand that their ways are strange too. They're far more emotionally chaotic than I am, and the way they work is very different to the way I work. I work faster and better than they do (and they know it, and the boss loves it), because design comes naturally to me in a way it doesn't to them.

It doesn't have to be us and them. Believe me, NTs have as many problems as Aspies, and for everything we can put in a list of "Things we can't do but they can", there's another list that's just as full of things we can do that make them jealous as hell.

Irvy did a much better job than I could, to explain this dynamic you (Guardeleon) are trying to get at. It's simply that they think they can help us by making us more "normal" under the assumption that it's too hard being like us. It's nothing like being oppressed. People with aspergers/autism are protected by the ADA and can have PSDs and what not. Real oppression is like when a man is arrested when he's been abused by his wife, or is denied access to a shelter from an abusive partner. Real oppression is written into law and/or enforced by some Authority or Institution.

Guardeleon,
I totally get what you are saying. In my years working in corporate America, I observed that being social skillfull counted for far more than being competent. That is, how well you did socialy in high school seemed to be a better predictor for who got promoted than who had the academic cred (i.e. schooling) and could do the work.

I like your term sociarchy and I see how it is distinguished from the word society. Sociarchy is rule-of-the-sociable (i.e. the sociarchs), while society is the thing that is ruled. You have given a name to the bosses of the popularity culture that we live in.

As for oppression, its only a loaded term because it is being loaded up by the posters.

op⋅pres⋅sion   /əˈprɛʃən/
–noun 1. the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
2. an act or instance of oppressing.
3. the state of being oppressed.
4. the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.

As you can see, oppression does not require any sort of state sanction to be. Oppression simply requires being heavily burdened. And I would dare say that for an aspie or an autie, living up the the demands and expectations of NT society is quite burdensom. Ergo: Society and/or the Sociarchy does oppress the aspie.

This sort of oppression is nothing new to humans. Throughout history we can find case after case of the homogenous majority oppressing heterogenus minority kind untill the heterogeneity is gone either through extermination or assimilation. Kind of like the Borg in STNG.

Irvy - I though you were bang on when you posted: "Maybe we should be teaching them how to be better auties." I believe that this is the insight needed to reach a constructive solution to the problem.

Now regarding intention: NTs don't have to want to oppress aspies in order to actually oppress us. The can have the best intentions and we could still feel very persecuted. Take for example the religious persecution of centuries ago, lots of people got burned at the stake - why? Well, to save their souls. One group of people tortured another group to coerce this group to convert to the religion of the torturers. And if torture was not enough, then they were burned at the stake to purify thier souls - that is, to make them in death what they would not be in life, a convert.

So, its quite possible for one group to oppress another even though the one group thinks its actually helping. which is exactly what NTs are doing to aspies and auties alike... killing/oppressing with kindness... for our own good... the NT perception of good.
Hence: "Maybe we should be teaching them how to be better auties."